← Canto 2: The Cosmic Manifestation

Chapter 4: The Process of Creation

Verse 12 of 24
SB 2.4.12

श्री शुक उवाच नमः परस्मै पुरुषाय भूयसे सदुद्भवस्थाननिरोधलीलया गृहीतशक्तित्रितयाय देहिनामन्तर्भवायानुपलक्ष्यवर्त्मने

śrī śuka uvāca namaḥ parasmai puruṣāya bhūyase sad-udbhava-sthāna-nirodha-līlayā gṛhīta-śakti-tritayāya dehinām antarbhavāyānupalakṣya-vartmane

Synonyms

namaḥoffering obeisances; parasmaithe Supreme; puruṣāyaPersonality of Godhead; bhūyaseunto the complete whole; sad-udbhavacreation of the material world; sthānaits maintenance; nirodhaand its winding up; līlayāby the pastime of; gṛhītahaving accepted; śaktipower; tritayāyathree modes; dehināmof all who possess material bodies; antarbhavāyaunto Him who resides within; anupalakṣyainconceivable; vartmaneone who has such ways..

Translation

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead who, for the creation of the material world, accepts the three modes of nature. He is the complete whole residing within the body of everyone, and His ways are inconceivable.

Purport

This material world is a manifestation of the three modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, and the Supreme Lord, for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material world, accepts three predominating forms of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śaṅkara (Śiva). As Viṣṇu He enters into every body materially created. As Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu He enters into every universe, and as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu He enters in the body of every living being. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, being the origin of all Viṣṇu-tattvas, is addressed here as paraḥ pumān, or Puruṣottama, as described in the Bhagavad-gītā (Bg. 15.18), or the complete whole. The puruṣāvatāras are therefore His plenary expansions. Bhakti-yoga is the only process by which one can become competent to know Him. Because the empiric philosophers and mystic yogīs cannot conceive of the Personality of Godhead, He is called anupalakṣya-vartmane, the Lord of the inconceivable way, or bhakti-yoga.

Verse 12 of 24
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